By the time school ended for the day, Adachi was already gone, as per usual. She told me that whenever she came home too early, her mom got upset, so I figured she was probably wandering around town somewhere to kill time.
As for me, I went to class after lunch, as I’d done the day before. Then, when the final bell rang, I went with Hino and Nagafuji to the bookstore. Normally I never went there, since it was in the exact opposite direction of my house. Today, however, I was looking for something specific. Since it wasn’t my usual genre, I had no idea whether they’d even carry it.
“Well, what do you know?” I mused aloud.
Standing in the sports section, I pulled a ping-pong tactics guide off the shelf. If Adachi’s researching online, then I’ll research through books , I thought. I flipped it over to check the price. “Yikes!” I balked. Never again will I question the power of the almighty search engine. Soooo much cheaper.
“Whatcha looking at?”
Hino peered over my shoulder to see what was in my hands. We’d all gone our separate ways when we first walked in, but evidently she was curious to see what I was up to. I already knew it would be too much effort to try to hide the book, so I showed her the cover.
“You’re joining the ping-pong team?” She tilted her head, puzzled. We don’t have a ping-pong team, you idiot.
Hino was something of a plain Jane. Never dyed her hair, never shoplifted, probably never even got into a catfight with a girl from another school… Not that I’d done either of the latter two myself. She had big, round eyes, and she was charming in an unsophisticated way—the kind of girl who’d make her own sound effects when she played sports. She was always down for anything; if you asked her to do a backflip, she’d probably give it a try right then and there. Her main hobby was fishing, and she often complained that there were no fellow fishing fans in our class…but I digress.
“So, why ping-pong? Did Friday Roadshow do an episode on table tennis or something?”
“No, I wasn’t inspired by anything in particular. Just felt like it, that’s all,” I replied evasively. It was too hard to explain… Okay, no, it wasn’t. I just didn’t want to explain. Without reading a single page, I returned the book to its place on the shelf. I was just going to have to search online like Adachi had. At the same time, though, I could imagine her teasing me for “copying her,” and that made me mad. So mad, in fact, that it would be really awkward if she didn’t tease me for it.
“Heyyyy! Don’t leave meeee!” called Nagafuji in a flat, unconvincing voice, demanding our attention as she toddled over to Hino and me.
Big breasts and glasses. That was all you really needed to know about Nagafuji. Her hair was silky and perfectly straight—very fun to play with. When she wasn’t in her school uniform, she usually wore it down, letting it rest atop her chest. Not only was she physically mature, she had a mature personality to match…though she was also kind of stupid.
“So, what were you guys talking about?”
“Don’t worry about it,” said Hino, slapping Nagafuji on the boob.
“Okay, then, I won’t,” Nagafuji replied, smacking Hino over the head.
Supposedly, Hino and Nagafuji had been friends since junior high. But I’d only just met them in high school, so their friendship with me was a little more restrained. Still, friendship wasn’t the sort of thing you could force your way into. Try to get too close, and the other person might push you away. Then everything would get complicated.
“That was sexual harassment, and you know it. Explain yourself.”
“I realize you’re self-conscious about your body, so I figured I’d help you feel more comfortable,” Hino replied cheerfully, as though she’d done absolutely nothing wrong. In fact, I’d never once seen her apologize for her antics. She must have a strong sense of self. Or maybe she’s just an ass.
“You’re self-conscious?” I asked Nagafuji.
She looked away shyly, then nodded. “When you have big boobs, the boys tend to stare. So, yeah…I can’t help but feel a little self-conscious.” She folded her arms over her chest, which, naturally, did absolutely nothing to hide it.
“I bet the guys in our class have all fantasized about touching them,” I replied.
“Ewww…that’s kinda gross,” Nagafuji scoffed, recoiling.
Honestly, they’d probably imagined a lot worse. I didn’t want to get raunchy in the middle of a bookstore, though, so I kept it classy. Glancing back at the ping-pong book, I sighed.
“That’s just the price you have to pay for being so popular,” Hino joked, slapping Nagafuji’s boob the same way one would clap their friend on the back. “Oops, my hand sli—aagh!”
In return, Nagafuji smacked her hard over the head.
I sidestepped away from the spectacle so I wouldn’t be associated with them.